No Ebola in my backyard.
That’s what the mayor of Forest Park recently told state emergency management officials who wanted to open an infectious disease isolation facility at Fort Gillem.
“That’s a euphemism for Ebola quarantine,” Mayor David Lockhart told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday. Lockhart said as much in a November 6 letter to the head of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
“Thank you for your invitation to warehouse the Ebola virus in the City of Forest Park. For the sake of the people of our fine city, I must respectfully decline,” Lockhart said in the letter to GEMA director Charlie English. Lockhart learned of GEMA’s intention after getting a “memorandum of agreement” on his desk the day before. GEMA had crafted an informal arrangement with Forest Park fire chief Eddie Burkholts who has worked with state emergency officials over the years, Lockhart said.
GEMA officials have since quietly retreated from the Forest Park idea and continue to pursue other state-owned facilities or military bases as potential sites. Dobbins Air Force Base in Cobb County handled one of the early Ebola cases in the United States, according to GEMA spokesman Ken Davis. The rebuff from Forest Park comes on the heels of news that seven Georgia hospitals that have been designated as Ebola hospitals have chosen to remain anonymous.
“Once the mayor refused that took care of that as far as considering that particular location as a facility,” Davis said Monday. Davis said the proposal stemmed from staff-level conversations between Forest Park officials and GEMA officials.
The memo called for Forest Park to provide space a "mobile hospital or modular building" in the 300 area parking lot of the former army post. The state would pay for all costs tied to running the facility, such as water, electricity, temporary housing, security and disposing of sanitary waste. In addition to providing the space, Forest Park would have been responsible for fire and emergency services to the facility. Any responses would have been at the state and public health officials' direction.
Davis said the facility would have housed travelers coming into Hartsfield-Jackson airport from West African countries experiencing Ebola outbreaks. Although they might not show signs of the virus, Davis said the travelers could be deemed high-risk and as such would likely be quarantined for 21 days to make sure they’re Ebola free.
“That’s ludicrous. You’re putting them there because you think they might have (the virus),” Lockhart said. Lockhart also expressed concern in the letter about the potential safety risks imposed on Forest Park police, fire and rescue personnel.
“Would our police and fire personnel then face a mandatory quarantine period, leaving our city’s emergency agencies understaffed?” Lockhart posed in his letter to GEMA. “Will our personnel simply move on to the next routine call, potentially spreading the virus to our residents requesting their services?” While I have no disdain for you individually I simply cannot trust our government officials to tell us the truth.”
“We need jobs in Forest Park and economic activity,” Lockhart said. “We do not need to allocate Fort Gillem space to the Ebola virus. We don’t need to put our own residents at risk.”
About the Author
